2014-11-28

As some of the regular readers of this blog may have
realized by now, I stem from the country of Norway, which is situated way north
of most sensible latitudes in Europe. Sharing a border with my home country is
another country called Finland, also a weird place, covered in snow and saunas.
However, should you happen to look really carefully at the map, you may find a
third country stuck between the two aforementioned ones – and if you can be
bothered to look up the statistics for this country you’ll also find that it is
both bigger and more populous than either. This, dear beer lover, is the
country of Sweden.

Sweden is a country with a long history of aggressive
behaviour. A few hundred years ago, the king would round up an army at regular
intervals and go marauding down in central Europe, mainly to escape the long
winter nights and the endless supply of pickled herring back home. The army
would pillage, rape and murder, but eventually they’d meet someone who could
actually fight and promptly retreat homewards. Finally, after many years of
such expensive tomfoolery, they simply decided that they preferred pickled
herring and long winter nights and declared themselves forever neutral.

Having finished the mandatory history lesson, you now know
pretty much all that’s worth knowing about Sweden – except what the beer
situation is like. It’s really lucky that I’m writing this blog entry now and
not 10 years ago, because back then it would have been summarized in a single
word: simply awful. The sober ones amongst you may have realized that this was
three words. Never mind. My point is: Sweden’s beer scene has actually improved
massively, and can now be summarized in four words: not as awful as it used to
be.

Sweden, like most countries, used to have loads of local and
regional breweries that would output stuff suitable to quench the thirst of the
local populace. The story continues as expected: as transport improved and
capitalism started to bite, breweries got bought out by others, and the beer
scene steadily converged on a handful of national brands, which then got bought
out by the big international you-know-whos. The unusual thing about Sweden,
though, is that the politicians decided to add a bureaucratic twist to the
story by banning the sale of beers above a certain alcohol percentage from
being sold in normal stores – more or less exactly what was done in Norway,
too. The depressing thing about Sweden is that they set the limit at 3.5%
instead of the Norwegian’s more sensible 4.7% - which means that all normal
beer styles can no longer be sold in normal shops.

What followed was a disaster for people who like good beer.
The 3.5% limit meant that all breweries focused on alcohol percentage rather
than taste – the stuff in the normal shops was weak and undrinkable, whereas
the stronger stuff sold in the state-controlled shops known as “Systembolaget”
was, well, stronger – but still pretty much undrinkable, even though it at least
did a decent job in getting you drunk. In fact, for many years Swedes would simply order "en stor stark", which translates as "a big strong", in this case meaning beer, completely without regard to which beer style or brewery was behind the alcoholic beverage that would subsequently appear in your glass. Luckily, the story does not end here. Slowly,
but surely, the Systembolaget shops started to put foreign beers on the
shelves, and discerning Swedes (and foreigners in Sweden) realized that there
were other types of beer than just “weak” and “strong”.

Rewind forward a dozen years or so, and the Systembolaget
stocks hundreds of imported beers as well as a reasonable selection of new
Swedish beers made by recently established breweries keen to join the beer
revolution. Since my arse is currently sat on a lovely Swedish wooden chair in
the far-north city of Luleå, and since I have just had the pleasure of trying 3
of these Swedish beers, I thought I’d write an insanely long introduction
before getting to the main point of this blog entry: beer.

Typical Swedish strong beer - nowadays brewed by Spendrup's

Oh, before I forget, since I may have been slightly unkind
to Sweden at the beginning of this text, I will now try to balance this by
saying that I find both the beer selection and the prices in the Systembolaget
(conveniently situated around the corner from my hotel) excellent, especially seen
with my Norwegian eyes. Both Norway and Sweden have a reputation for
eye-wateringly high taxes on alcohol, but the beer is still about HALF the
price in Swedish shops. This, of course, reminds me of the Great Scandinavian
Beer Relay: Norwegians pop across the border to buy cheap Swedish beer, the
Swedes pop across to Denmark to buy even cheaper beer, and the Danes to the
same thing in Germany. I took the shortcut straight to Germany.

So what have I been drinking today to inspire such a
wonderfully eloquent entry? Well, I started off with a St Eriks IPA. This
brewery is situated in the wonderful capital of Sweden, Stockholm, a city worth
visiting for many reasons, not least the chance of visiting the former pride of
the Swedish navy, the Wasa, a ship so fantastic that it capsized in calm
weather about 1300 metres (yes, metres - less than a mile for the lovers of imperial units) into its maiden voyage and then spent the next 300
years on the bottom of the sea before being salvaged and put into a rather
magnificent museum. The St Eriks IPA certainly did not capsize, although I have
to say that it didn’t massively impress either – good, but not great.

Next up was the Organic Ale from Sigtuna brewery. Sigtuna is
a small town situated just outside Stockholm, and was apparently founded by the
Vikings more than 1000 years ago. The brewery is considerably newer, having
been founded in 2005. As it happens, their internet pages have just told me
that this brewery shares its premises with St Erik. Oh well, I guess this might
explain why this beer was also good, but not great. It’s a pleasant beer but without
anything to set it apart from the bunch.

The final beer was from a brewery called “Oppigårds”, and
the very promising label said “Thurbo Double IPA”. My expectations were
unsurprisingly sky high, and in this case the beer did not disappoint. This was
a hoppilicious beer, a bit like hopping on a hop field whilst chewing hop gum
and being generally hoppy. In fact, I have already thought about immediately planning
to write to them and suggest that they change the brewery name to “Hoppigårds”.
If you’re now chuckling to yourself, rest assured that you have the same crappy
sense of humour as the author, also known to myself simply as “I”.

OK, what’s the conclusion? Well, don’t go to Sweden
just because of the beer. The same can be said about the food, the scenery, the
weather and the skiing. However, Sweden is a bit like the Volvo – safe, without
being terribly exciting. You might find that it’s the combination of many
things that makes Sweden a worthwhile place to visit. That, and the Wasa ship.
Imagine making one of the world's greatest museums out of your biggest, most embarrassing naval
disaster. This alone is worth a trip, and when you’re in Stockholm you might as
well drink a few tasty beers from the new breweries that have sprung up in the
last decade or so. Have fun, and don’t forget to skål with the locals. Skål!